HonestTom

New update, and this one's a twofer (because YouTube is funny about videos longer than 15 minutes). It's the continuing saga of Trying To Make Triang Mineral Wagons Not Look Rubbish. Part 1 Part 2

I came across some rather smaller cranes in Poplar Dock a while back - I'll post the photos when I get the chance, but there's one  here   to give you an idea. What I find particularly interesting is that they appear to be mounted on standard gauge track and they look quite top-heavy. I find myself wondering if a clever modeller could bash something similar using the top of a Dapol dockside crane around a motor bogie to create a travelling crane that actually travels. The base of the crane is quite beefy, so you could probably hide or at least distract from the motor.

I made a video covering these coaches here, if that would be of interest. In answer to your questions: - No known prototype. I have heard it suggested that it was based on a Somerset and Dorset coach, but it's basically a freelance carriage designed to fit on the old Triang brake van chassis. - There are some simple improvements (my video gives some suggestions). One is that you can replace the chassis - the Hornby track cleaning coach rides lower and has a little more detail. I've also heard you can use the Dapol brake van kit chassis. The incline of the roof is a bit steep, so you may want to file the ends down and replace the roof. The underframe could do with detailing up. - On an industrial layout, you could probably get away with it, with the caveat that there is no brake coach. - There are lots of kits you could use. Other alternatives are the Triang Rocket coach (which goes for big bucks) or, in the Bachmann Thomas range, the Red Coaches, Emily's Coaches or Henrietta. A popular kit is the Ratio GWR 4-wheeler.

I don't know if it's the same one, but I saw one by that name on the Regent's Canal a couple of months back. There was another called the Flying Kipper.

Chris Walas built a fantasy layout a few years back on which everything apart from the track and the rolling stock chassis was made of paper and card (even the figures were papier mache). You could do something similar with salvaged card and paper. I'm currently working on a series of videos about modelling a scrapyard (appropriately) on the cheap making heavy use of junk and freebies - coffee stirrers for fences, junk mail cut up into metal offcuts, straws into pipes and the like.

That's some excellent backscene work. Honestly, I had to look pretty hard to spot where the 3-D bit ends.

For me, if I'm making a layout with the intent of displaying it for others, then yeah I'll add a backscene. If it's just for me, I have been known not to bother. After all, I don't have to convey the setting to others.

Hi all. I've lately been playing with the concept of making YouTube videos on the subject of railway modelling. I'm kind of feeling my way at the moment, trying to figure out what works and how to improve. I was inspired by talking about the hobby with a number of friends who have expressed an interest in getting into the hobby. I wanted to create videos aimed at beginners, people who aren't necessarily super-knowledgeable about railways or modelling, to give them an accessible introduction to concepts within the hobby. These are the videos produced so far: The Hornby 4-wheel coach analysed Frankenshunter A Victorian locomotive Improving the Triang mineral wagon, part 1 I have a couple more lined up. The aim is to have one up every Friday evening. There's a sort of overarching storyline to the videos, as it were, building up to the construction of a simple micro-layout. Feedback is welcome - like I say, I'm new to this, so I'm aware that improvements can be made.

I like the painting on the platforms - very visually interesting.

This looks like fun. I've often thought I'd like to experiment with a tiny oval - I don't know why, it's just a concept that appeals to me.

I'll echo the praise for the crane - it really increases the operational interest. I suspect most viewers won't know enough about cranes to be able to say it shouldn't be in the UK, I certainly didn't. The rest of the layout is looking good too.

These models are mighty interesting to me. I have a couple of chopped up 0-4-0s turned into freelance Victorian locos, so both your engine and its coaches would be great shedmates for them.

I like this concept. The Neilson box tanks are also favourites of mine, really unique little engines.

I like your plan - very reminiscent of the large Welsh slate quarries, as well as the once-popular "Rabbit Warren" layouts. It'll be a great playground for Skarloey and Rheneas.

I've recently started experimenting with YouTube (plug, plug, link in my signature), mostly for fun and to share thoughts and ideas. Personally, I've never seen the appeal of unboxing videos, but apparently a lot of people do. As for the exhibition thing, I think people should ask permission before filming, especially if they intend to put it online for public viewing. It's like using someone else's music or footage - you're benefiting from someone else's hard work and creativity. I don't take videos, but I do sometimes snap photos if a layout particularly impresses me. I've never had an exhibitor deny permission.

The history of this concept is kind of complicated. When Rev W. Awdry first started writing the Railway Series books, the engines were just meant to be broad "types" of locomotive. A Pacific, an Atlantic, a 4-4-0 etc. But the early artists weren't so good at technical stuff, so the engines tended to look unprototypical and often changed from illustration to illustration. From Henry the Green Engine onwards, all characters were based on real locomotive classes to avoid this. With later illustrators, Awdry would send them photos of his own models of the characters. His Gordon was a Triang Princess hacked about a bit to produce something like a Gresley A1. Fast forward to the 1980s, and Awdry published a book out of the extensive notes he and his brother George made on the Island of Sodor. This included histories of all the locomotives. Easy enough with characters like Toby and Oliver, who have clear prototypes. Not so easy with characters like Edward and Percy, who don't look much like anything specific. In the case of Gordon, the "A0" story (not referred to as such in the book) was simply a means of explaining how an A1-looking Pacific with the frames, wheels and motion of a Princess wound up on Sodor. The GNR built a prototype Pacific so secret it doesn't even appear in their records, then sold it to the Fat Controller, who later had it rebuilt under Stanier. Modellers now tend to use the story as a starting point for their own ideas and research as to what such an engine might look like.

I think a lot of these models sell not because they're useful to the serious modeller, but because people like them. Are there really enough people modelling the ECML in pre-Grouping days to justify a Stirling Single? But it sold out. How many people model Huntley & Palmer's biscuit factory? But the Peckett in that livery sold out and looks to sell out again, even while other Pecketts languish on the shelves. Similarly, I think the selling points for the APT-P are nostalgia, novelty and looks rather than operational usefulness. The big sales drawback as I see it would be that it's a complete train, but then again, how many people can really justify the APT-E?

I'd say it has the same kind of appeal as the APT-E. I think that, for all Dave Jones didn't succeed, crowdfunding would be the way to go, and I'd say someone like Rapido would be the lads to do it.

Queenstown Road in London. One of the wooden platforms is still in situ, out of use.

Hornby's Railroad range has some neat little 0-4-0s. The 'D' class tank engine is about as simple as it gets - a one-piece body with a one-piece chassis with only a short funnel (so can't be broken off). They can be obtained second-hand for around £10-15, so if anything does break, it's easily replaced. From the same range, the J83, Jinty or Class 08 are also pretty good, and have been in the range for donkeys' years and so, again, can be obtained easily second-hand. For rolling stock, I'd suggest Triang or older Hornby. A lot of their basic rolling stock is of no interest to "serious" modellers and so can be picked up very cheaply.

The IOW Terriers are a good shout. Interesting that we're getting another Improved Engine Green Terrier - I wonder if that means pre-orders on Stepney have been particularly good?

Former factory and brewery in Clerkenwell.

These buildings are cold stores alongside Smithfield meat market.

A 19th century pub in Hampton Hill and a Town house in Paddington.

Another from Spitalfields.